PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Mario Lemieux arrived in Pittsburgh
in 1984 as a nervous French-speaking teen-ager who didn't
even know how to say hello. He certainly knows how to say
goodbye.

Lemieux, one of the greatest players in hockey
history, pulled on his No. 66 jersey for perhaps the last
time Wednesday as the Pittsburgh Penguins officially
retired the new Hall of Famer's number.

It was a night of cheers and tears, of tributes and
memories, and even the normally composed Lemieux halted
his prepared remarks as he choked up with emotion.

``It's difficult to tell people how important they are
to you,'' Lemieux said.

Lemieux, the sixth-leading scorer in NHL history,
retired last spring after winning six scoring titles and
leading what once was the league's worst franchise to
Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992.

The 30-minute jersey retirement ceremony came two days
after Lemieux joined the Hockey Hall of Fame, which
waived its normal three-year waiting period for
induction.

Lemieux attracted numerous sellout crowds to a Civic
Arena that often was two-thirds empty before his arrival,
and he did so again Wednesday -- the Penguins' first
standing room-only crowd of the season.

The Lemieux-less Penguins tied the Boston Bruins 3-3,
but many of the fans were long gone by the end. They had
come for one reason -- to say goodbye to the greatest
player in franchise history.

``Thank you for making the last 13 years of my life
the best 13 years of my life,'' Lemieux said, moments
just before a large No. 66 banner was hoisted to the top
of the Civic Arena.

``I have a lot of great memories in this building, the
many comebacks from back surgery and Hodgkin's disease,
some of the important goals that I scored during our
Stanley Cup years. Those memories we can all cherish for
the rest of our lives.''

There was only one disappointing moment for the fans:
Lemieux did not announce a comeback.

Lemieux, who is only 32, returned so often from injury
and illness that some fans held out faint hope that he
might reconsider his decision to quit. Even team owner
Howard Baldwin said following a Game 5 loss to
Philadelphia in the Stanley Cup playoffs in April that he
hadn't ruled out a comeback.

But Lemieux emphasized during his Hall of Fame
induction that he will never play hockey again, saying,
``I'm retired.''

During a brief news conference before the jersey
retirement, Lemieux said he felt as nervous as he did
before all but a few of his games.

He recalled how, as a French-Canadian teen-ager who
didn't ``speak a word of English,'' he realized only
weeks after arriving in Pittsburgh in 1984 how long it
would take to build a winner.

The Penguins were one of the NHL's most unstable
franchises before his arrival -- the team's offices once
were padlocked for non-payment of taxes -- and they did
not make the playoffs until his sixth year in the league.

``The first few games in Pittsburgh were very
difficult, and I knew it would take a long, long time for
us to get some draft picks and some players who could
play the game,'' he said.

After they finally started winning, the Penguins
seemed destined to win more Stanley Cups after they won
consecutive titles in 1991 and 1992.

But they were upset by the New York Islanders in the
1993 playoffs and, later that year, Lemieux was diagnosed
with Hodgkin's disease, or cancer of the lymph nodes, and
missed three-quarters of that season.

He later sat out the 1994-95 season after recovering
from the cancer and a second bout with back trouble but
returned to lead the Penguins to within one victory of a
third trip to the Stanley Cup finals in 1996.

He won his fifth and sixth scoring championships in
his final two seasons in the league.

``How do I want to remembered? Just as somebody who
took a last-place team and won a championship,'' he said.
``That was a big challenge to me when I came to
Pittsburgh, and we were finally able to do it.''